GoNintendo 'End of Day' thought - SteamWorld Heist review

I was completely wrong about SteamWorld Dig and I'm still embarrassed about it. I wasn't against the game when it was announced...I was just indifferent towards it. I didn't really pay any attention to it. It wasn't from a developer I knew and it didn't sound like something I would enjoy. Looking back on that, I'm really sad to see I was acting that way. At first, I didn't even give the game a chance. I just pretended like it didn't exist and that's really crappy of me.

Thankfully, one day I caught some footage NintenDaan had shared and my mind was blown. I don't know what the hell I read that turned me off, but seeing the game in action really did it for me. It seemed to check all the boxes in my mental list. I went from zero hype to extreme interest in about a minute. That lead to my great anticipation of the game coming out. When I finally got to go hands-on with the finished game, I saw just how wrong my initial impression was. SteamWorld Dig is absolutely one of my favorite 3DS games of all-time. It was such a wonderful experience, and I was glad to see that so many others caught onto just how great it was.

That success for Image and Form paved the way for a sequel in SteamWorld Heist. Okay...so it's not really a sequel. It's another SteamWorld game that takes place in the same universe, but it doesn't play anything like the previous title. When I first heard that SteamWorld Dig 2 was put on the backburner for SteamWorld Heist, I was a tad disheartened. Then I stopped myself and remembered the silly feelings I had with the first game. I put all my trust into Image and Form and eagerly looked forward to their new outing. Now that I've had loads of time with the final game, I'll be damned if I haven't been blown away all over again.

Like I said, SteamWorld Heist is a completely different game type from SteamWorld Dig. Heist is a turn-based affair with real-time action, light platforming, loot-grabbing, hat-wearing and team-building. You know, your standard type of experience! In all honesty, this mish-mash of gameplay ideas makes perfect sense coming from Image and Form. SteamWorld Dig took a bunch of game genres and crammed them together into a cohesive experience. SteamWorld Heist does that exact same thing, but it's a completely different set of genres that get mashed up this time. Unbelievably, the developers managed to make this work once again.

In SteamWorld Heist, you set out on a rusty bucket of bolts in outer space, taking control of a gang of robot pirates from all walks of life. Your mission may start out with you learning some of your less-than-savory doings, but along the way you'll see how this ragtag group ends up turning themselves from seedy pirates into a group that could end up steering the entire galaxy towards a better place. I always aim to stay away from spoilers in my reviews, so you'll have to play for yourself to see just how the story comes together. I will say that the experience is quite an enjoyable one, filled with memorable characters and some deliciously humorous writing.

The real heart of SteamWorld Dig comes from the missions you take on. You'll set out to tackle other pirate ships you come across in outer space, all of which are lined up on a giant space map. There are branching paths to take on optional missions, as well as locations you'll have to sweep clean in order to progress. You'll fly to each destination that tickles your fancy, then dock your ship with the opposition and climb aboard for some action. What ends up taking place on these other ships is the hook that sinks itself extremely deep into your gaming brain.

As I said above, SteamWorld Heist is a turn-based affair. Every character you have can move a certain amount of steps. Depending on the equipment you have and the characters you're utilizing, you'll be able move shorter/greater distances. These characters/pieces of equipment will also determine what kind of actions you can do. Everyone can start off their move by firing their weapon, but sometimes your setup won't allow you to move and then fire. That means you'll have to decide if you want to forge ahead to a better vantage point, or take aim and fire while staying where you are.

Again, this all depends on who you have in your robot army, what abilities they have and the weapons they are carrying. While you start off in control of the ship's captain and her first mate, you'll be able to recruit other robots along the way. Sometimes you'll have to fulfill specific requirements to pick them up. Some depend on your overall star ranking, which is built up by completing missions to their fullest extent. Other characters want a sweet bit of cash, which in the SteamWorld universe, comes by way of water. Since these steam robots survive on water, it's easy to see how hot a commodity water can be.

Getting back to missions, each of them has different requirements. One mission might let you take 4 of your crew into a battle, while others may have you flying solo. Each character has their strengths and weaknesses, and all of those change as you play with them. If you manage to keep them alive through an entire mission, a character will earn experience/level-up and earn new abilities. Those can include special focus shots that do more damage, the ability to heal themselves/others around and more tantalizing elements. Keeping everyone leveled up and taking the right team into battle is often the key to your victory.

Victory is the end result though, and it's the worst part of a mission. That's because the mission ends once you achieve victory! I absolutely cannot get enough of the core gameplay in SteamWorld Heist. Mission structures are so engaging and addictive that I never wanted wrap an outing. I always found myself wanting one more twist, one more enemy, one new door to open. Image and Form seems to have a real knack for creating gameplay loops that sink their teeth into you and won't let you go. There are a handful of games out there that give me this feeling. The satisfaction of a quality beat'em-up...the headshots of Resident Evil 4...and the back-and-forth firefights of SteamWorld Heist.

Here's how missions work. You move all of your characters one at a time. Once you set a character off with their orders, you can take control of the next while the first is moving. Your main goal is usually to find the enemy threat on a ship, take it out and exit that ship. You'll have a map on the bottom screen that shows you where doors are, but you never know what lies behind them. You could open up a door into a room full of baddies, or you could walk into a room that's jam-packed with loot. You'll want to explore every nook and cranny of a ship, as sometimes you'll get to take home all sorts of booty that will make your overall journey easier. Sometimes you'll have to wander all around a ship just to find the objective you're trying to tackle, which also paves the way for some great loot opportunities.

It's when you happen upon enemies that the real fun begins. You're on a ship to steal some loot and escape with your life. The other pirates and enemies are around to take you out and stop you from stealing their goods. It's up to you to put your characters into the best positions possible to take out the opposition and not take too much damage. The environments are littered with areas to hide in, providing cover for your characters. You can take the chance to run to a barrel or makeshift shield to hide behind, or you can run right up to an enemy and try punching him in the face. That's for the more brazen players, as hanging back and shooting at your enemies usually is the best route.

Enemies aren't dumb either. Just like you, they're going to run around a level and try to get the best shot. They'll also hunt out defensive positions to hole up in and make the battle that much tougher. This leads to some pretty tense firefights, where you'll have bullets zipping by your head as you're trying to fire upon an exploding barrel that could take out half of the other team. Again, your movements are turn-based, but your attacks are handled in real-time.

That's another element of SteamWorld Heist that makes it such an addictive experience. When it comes down to the nitty gritty of actually attacking, you'll have to take that on manually. Once your character has moved into the position you picked, you can take out your weapon and unleash it on the enemies. This action requires you to actually aim the gun and fire it. There's no sitting back and letting the computer handle that for you. You'll have to line up shots and do your attacks while avoiding environmental hazards and obstacles. Some guns you acquire will have laser sights to help you aim, but others are just point and shoot.

On top of that, you'll have to account for the type of weapon you're using. Single-shot pistols are easy enough to aim and fire, but a shotgun or rifle is going to be a bit different. Rifles add a little kickback with shots and shotguns are going to spread a bunch of bullets into a wide area. With a shotgun that has a value of 9 damage, you can always get that 9 points when you're standing up close with the enemy. If you're a few steps back, you risk missing a few bits of that shot, possibly leaving an enemy with enough health to return your attack. There's also various grenades, rockets and even brass knuckles that you can utilize to take the enemy out. All of them require finesse and work better in specific situations. It's up to you to figure out when those situations arise.

This unique battle system makes SteamWorld Heist so much fun to play. Again, while the mechanics are completely different from SteamWorld Dig, the resulting 'feeling' I get from the game is exactly the same. The level of fun that I get is almost a tangible thing...like a physical creation I can actually touch. I know how weird that sounds, but that's really the feeling I get. It's like something I could actually bite into! It's a delicious gameplay creation that never fills me up and always leaves me hungry for more. ...insert fat joke here.

While the gunfire might be the main element of SteamWorld Heist's mechanics, there's also other elements sprinkled into missions to keep them feeling fresh and different. Some levels will be loaded with turrets that add to the gunfire already coming from robot foes. Other levels include timers that count down with every turn. Once the timer reaches zero, new doors on the ship will open and let loose completely new waves of enemies. There are even levels that have you taking out generators or destroying elements before you can call it mission complete. These little twists and turns give missions an even deeper level of fun that truly acts as the icing on the cake.

I guess the cherry on top would have to be all the loot you can acquire. You'll mostly happen upon water in each level, but there are also other goodies just waiting to be snatched up. You'll find stashes that give you new guns that'll make the fight back easier. You can also find items like shoes that let you move further, or armor that lets you take a bit more damage. There's even different hats to collect for your robot crew! You'll find them hidden in loot bags, but other times you can knock the hat off an enemy and collect it for yourself! You have to be extra careful about this though, as the enemies can also knock off your hats!

My dear lord, I wish I could really explain to you how much fun I think SteamWorld Heist is. I could write about the gameplay for the rest of my life and never do it justice. It tickles all the areas in my head that determine what make a game fun and engaging for me. I don't want it to sound like I'm beating a dead horse by droning on about how interesting I find the gameplay, but it really is an important point for me to drive home. When it comes down to just the gameplay aspect...the ins and outs...the back and forth...I truly find SteamWorld Heist to be a perfect experience.

All that would remain true if the game didn't have anything else to offer, but it absolutely does. Image and Form has made it very clear that they're out to build a universe with SteamWorld. They want to show us what this world is like, what these characters do and how everything ties together. Those ideas all help to flesh out SteamWorld Heist into a living, breathing experience. So much care has been put into all areas that it really feels like you're peeking into an alternate universe. Equally important, Heist also feels like it fits in perfectly with the ideas and universe that Dig showed us.

The visual design is definitely very close to what we saw in Dig, but taken to a new level. Everything is more detailed, characters are much bigger, surrounding environments are drawn in great detail. Characters speak in all sorts of buzzes, clicks and whirs. The bars spread out across the universe are filled with unsavory characters and even fully-voiced tunes performed by robot bands! Walking into a bar in outer space and being greeted with a beautiful tune about the characters around you just ties everything together. The entire soundtrack itself is once again astounding, just like it was in Dig. It's got that dreary/dreamy nature to it...filled with noises that sound like they're drifting off in space on their own. Man, oh MAN does it really do it for me!

I'm trying to think of new ways to tell you just how much I enjoy SteamWorld Heist. I'm going to bulletpoint a few tidbits that hopefully go a step further in showing you just how much I love this game.

- everytime I played, I used headphones. I hardly EVER use headphones with games I play on 3DS.
- levels give you star rankings based on who survives and various objectives. I would not stop playing a level until I received the perfect star ranking, sometime requiring upwards of 5 playthroughs.
- I have full intentions of buying this game for Wii U when it comes out. I desperately want to experience it again on the big screen
- wrapping the game gave me the exact same feeling I got from Dig. I never wanted it to end...I felt that shallow feeling in my stomach when it came to a close. I don't know that I could ever be satiated by it, no matter how many missions there were.

Here's an extremely important part to drive home about missions. These ships that you take on are going to be randomly generated. In other words, we might have the same mission objectives and goals to tackle, but the layout of my levels are going to be completely different from yours. Of course, that also means you can start a new game, and while the missions will have the same goals, you'll have to achieve them by going through completely different designs. It's an almost perfect solution for someone that enjoys the gameplay as much as I do.

I've gushed so much about this game that I'm thinking it's gotten to the point of annoying some of you. I sincerely apologize for that, but these feelings are 100% honest and genuine. When I look back on the content that has hit the 3DS in this last year, I can easily include SteamWorld Heist in the best-of list. I'd have to really sit down and look at all the titles that came out, but as I sit right now, I have no problem naming SteamWorld Heist as my 3DS game of the year.

Image and Form has poured everything they have into creating SteamWorld Heist. They had a surprise success with SteamWorld Dig and doubled down on the universe for a new adventure. I can really respect a team that is brave enough to do something like that, but that doesn't mean I'll end up loving their game. In the case of SteamWorld Heist, it just so worked out that the title blew away all my expectations. I was so hyped for the release and every bit of that hype was warranted. Image and Form may be a newer company with just a few games under their belt, but they've already proven that they really are something special.

SteamWorld Heist a resounding success in all respects. It brings many elements together into a fantastic package. Image and Form may have refined some ideas during development, but it's very clear they had an overall goal for the title. I think it's an absolute crime that this game isn't going to see a retail release. I really want to see it hit as many consumers as possible. Do not miss out on this game. SteamWorld Dig had me thinking that Image and Form was something special, but SteamWorld Heist convinced me of it.